Cee Posted April 9, 2011 Posted April 9, 2011 This is partly tongue-in-cheek, but I could use people's guidance. There are 8,000 ways to communicate with my boyfriend and I'm an old head and hopelessly confused. In the olden days, we'd do the telephone thing and that's it. Since we had landlines, we'd talk once or twice a day at most. Now there are so many ways to connect. My worry is that my BF and I will be on communication overload. When we don't see each other, we are in daily contact via email, Skype, or text. And then there's Facebook and Twitter, which we don't use to talk, but we use it to share stuff. I'm not used to this and am hoping that members who were born after 1980 would give me some guidance. How do you all manage so much communication options in your life? Do you feel burdened by it or it's simply a normal part of your life? Please teach me. I'm here to listen.
Feelin Frisky Posted April 9, 2011 Posted April 9, 2011 I call this missing knowledge "socio-technological literacy". It's the subject of my life's work. Everyone is socio-technologically illiterate these days--the new generation and the older. None of the technology which has made its way into popular acceptance has ever been introduced with formal cultural purposes being spelled out that are shared universally so, people are awash in technology that they all perceive differently. Human relationships haven't changed that much though--too much is still too much and not enough is still not enough. We all have to find our own levels. My level says that less is a little more. I never want to get into some kind of joined-at-the-hip relationship where I have to share each breath with someone by any form of communication. Being able to think and struggle for reason by myself will always be precious and I would want to have that clear moving forward into anything--I wouldn't want to enter a relationship and then have technology "create" the appearance of need to communicate so frequently. "Hey honey, I bought us each a Blackberry" will always be met with "oh yeah, who are you gonna call with that? No me I hope.".
january2011 Posted April 9, 2011 Posted April 9, 2011 Having a lot of options to choose from can be both liberating and paralysing depending on how you see the situation, but ultimately, they are still options and you do have a choice. If you mutually prefer one method over another, stick with that one. As far as I know, there aren't any rules that say you have to communicate via every single one of those myriad of options just because you can. I was born pre-1980 though, so feel free to take my advice with pinch of salt.
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